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Daniels: National Health Care Plan To Increase Medicaid Costs

(INDIANAPOLIS) - Governor Daniels is applauding Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s decision to join 14 other states in suing to block the new health care law.

Daniels predicts the law will increase Indiana Medicaid costs by four-percent, an increase which translates to "a few hundred million dollars."

The "insurance pools" designed to create health coverage for the uninsured would supersede Daniels' Healthy Indiana Plan, freeing up about $200-million dollars in cigarette taxes used to fund the program. But Daniels predicts Medicaid costs will eventually spiral beyond what hip would have cost. And Daniels says the administration only recently discovered a provision on the massive bill which would put an end to $25-million dollars in drug rebates the state receives from pharmaceutical companies.

Daniels had publicly urged Zoeller to join the legal challenge, though Zoeller says the governor made clear it was the attorney general's decision to make.

The governor has said he's skeptical the lawsuit can succeed. But he says his assessment is based not on analysis of the constitutional issues involved, but on the courts' historical reluctance to limit federal powers.

Daniels and Zoeller agree the law, including a requirement that citizens buy health insurance, presents novel constitutional questions that deserve prompt review by the judicial branch.

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